About Optics & Photonics TopicsOSA Publishing developed the Optics and Photonics Topics to help organize its diverse content more accurately by topic area. This topic browser contains over 2400 terms and is organized in a three-level hierarchy. Read more.

Topics can be refined further in the search results. The Topic facet will reveal the high-level topics associated with the articles returned in the search results.

Abstract

This paper demonstrates the efficiency of the differential method, a conventional grating theory, to investigate dielectric loaded surface plasmon polariton waveguides (DLSPPWs), known to be a potential solution for optical interconnects. The method is used to obtain the mode effective indices (both real and imaginary parts) and the mode profiles. The results obtained with the differential method are found to be in good agreement with those provided by the effective index method or finite elements. The versatility of the differential method is demonstrated by considering complex configurations such as trapezoidal waveguides or DLSPPWs lying on a finite width metal stripe.

(a): Illustration of a DLSPPW on a finite-width metal stripe; b: Evolution of the propagation length of the guided mode according the width of the metal stripe. The parameters are w=600 nm, t=600 nm and h=100 nm.

Tables (2)

Table 1. Comparison of the results obtained by the differential method (DM) to those provided by the Effective Index Method (EIM) and Finite Elements (FEM) for waveguides of different widths (t=600 nm, nw=1.535, nm=0.55+11.5ι and λ=1.55 µm)

Metrics

Table 1.

Comparison of the results obtained by the differential method (DM) to those provided by the Effective Index Method (EIM) and Finite Elements (FEM) for waveguides of different widths (t=600 nm, nw=1.535, nm=0.55+11.5ι and λ=1.55 µm)

Waveguide width w (nm)

200

300

400

500

600

700

800

ℜ(neff) DM

1.064

1.133

1.198

1.250

1.291

1.323

1.348

ℜ(neff) FEM

1.064

1.133

1.198

1.250

1.291

1.323

1.348

ℜ(neff) EIM

1.094

1.162

1.221

1.268

1.305

1.334

1.357

Lspp (µm) DM

80.4

59.1

50.1

46.0

44.0

42.8

42.2

Lspp (µm) FEM

81.3

59.1

50.1

46.4

44.4

42.8

42.2

Lspp (µm) EIM

89.7

63.4

53.0

48.1

45.5

44.0

43.2

Table 2.

Calculated effective index and propagation length for different trapezoidal DLSPP-Ws with the differential method

w1 (nm)

600

570

540

510

ν

1.291

1.286

1.276

1.269

Lspp (µm)

44.0

44.6

45.4

46.02

Tables (2)

Table 1.

Comparison of the results obtained by the differential method (DM) to those provided by the Effective Index Method (EIM) and Finite Elements (FEM) for waveguides of different widths (t=600 nm, nw=1.535, nm=0.55+11.5ι and λ=1.55 µm)

Waveguide width w (nm)

200

300

400

500

600

700

800

ℜ(neff) DM

1.064

1.133

1.198

1.250

1.291

1.323

1.348

ℜ(neff) FEM

1.064

1.133

1.198

1.250

1.291

1.323

1.348

ℜ(neff) EIM

1.094

1.162

1.221

1.268

1.305

1.334

1.357

Lspp (µm) DM

80.4

59.1

50.1

46.0

44.0

42.8

42.2

Lspp (µm) FEM

81.3

59.1

50.1

46.4

44.4

42.8

42.2

Lspp (µm) EIM

89.7

63.4

53.0

48.1

45.5

44.0

43.2

Table 2.

Calculated effective index and propagation length for different trapezoidal DLSPP-Ws with the differential method